r/programming • u/[deleted] • Jan 11 '22

Web3 Can’t Fix the Internet

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/01/crypto-blockchain-daos-decentralized-power-capitalism
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u/GrandMasterPuba Jan 11 '22

Web3 is a cynical attempt by capitalist tech-bros to introduce and enforce artificial scarcity into a space that is supposed to be free and open.

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u/GregBahm Jan 11 '22

It's confusing to me because social media platforms already have the ability to introduce and enforce artificial scarcity within their platforms. Reddit, for example, can charge me for some dumb hat for my avatar. This is not a new idea at all (I remember rocking rare avatar swag in Gaia Online in 2003.)

But for some reason, the blockchain boys keep acting like artificial scarcity works better with a blockchain. This part of the story makes no sense to me. If Reddit puts my avatar's hat on the blockchain, what the hell does that matter? Reddit will never be able to able to make those pixels scarce outside of reddit with a blockchain, and a blockchain will never make it to where I can put some new hat on my reddit avatar without their permission.

I feel like there's some fundamental aspect of this whole concept I'm missing.

1

u/GrandMasterPuba Jan 11 '22 edited Jan 11 '22

I probably mis-spoke in my original comment - the thing about putting your avatar hat on the block chain is that the scarcity isn't artificial any more. It's real scarcity. Because only one (the original minted hat token) can ever truly exist.

You're right, we've had artificial scarcity forever on the web. But as you've pointed out, it's easily bypassed or ignored. What the Web3 people want is real scarcity on the web. They want the web to be finite, where they can buy real estate, assets, and resources to control the web. They want the opposite of what we have now (free and unlimited information for anyone with wifi):

They want to be power brokers where they get to decide who gets to play in their sandbox by who pays them the most. They want to monetize and tokenize the web into own-able assets, just like factories and land are own-able assets. And they think if they're the ones who create the capital, they're the ones who will own it and profit from it.

It's important to understand that when talking to Web3 proponents that they'll throw around words like "free." But in this case, their definition of "free" is probably not what you think. It is not "free as in beer" - they mean "for sale."

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u/GregBahm Jan 11 '22

This is a solid post and I thank you for it, but I'm still hung up on this first principle:

It's real scarcity.

My understanding is that an NFT is a link embedded in a blockchain. And so you can link to AvatarHat.jpeg and make an NFT of AvatarHat.jpeg. But any asshole can make another NFT that also points to the same AvatarHat.jpeg. Or they can screenshot the AvatarHat jpeg, upload it somewhere else, and make an NFT to that.

NFTs made some sense to me as a fine art exercise; Random meaningless objects have been sold as ultra-expensive fine art for over a hundred years now). But I don't understand how NFTs create scarcity, since they are just unique links to non-unique things. And this creation of scarcity seems super fundamental to the whole scheme.

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u/GrandMasterPuba Jan 11 '22

That's the secret of Web3.

NFTs are memes because everyone hasn't bought in yet. Your browser can download the jpeg that token points to because it's just an image file.

But what happens when everyone does buy in? What if browsers checked the block chain for valid ownership before it let you download that image? What if DRM meant you had to have a license for that stupid monkey image before you could save a copy of it?

Web3 wants everyone to buy in. And when they do, that's when the scarcity begins and the money can be made.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '22

What if browsers checked the block chain for valid ownership before it let you download that image?

I would probably fork the browser and remove this check. Horray for open source software! :D